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EF0 tornado in Willacy County, Texas

Tornado March 29, 2012 · Willacy County, Texas

EF0
Rating
0.2 mi
Path length
25 yd
Path width
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 25 yards (0.01 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF0 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF0 is light damage: shingles and siding peeled, gutters torn, branches broken, consistent with estimated gusts of 65–85 mph. The rating comes from a survey of the worst damage after the storm, not from a wind measurement, so it says as much about what the tornado hit as about how strong it was.

What the National Weather Service wrote

Willacy County emergency manager relayed a report of a tornado on the Yturria Ranch, just east of Highway 77 in the northern portion of the county. There was a brief touch down and debris seen, but no damage reported.

The wider storm

Intense thunderstorms raked the highly populated McAllen/Edinburg/Mission area of Hidalgo County during the mid-evening of March 29th. The storms dumped hail up to the size of baseballs for more than half an hour, drove that hail with 70 to 75 mph winds, added 4 to 6 inches of torrential rains, and produced frequent cloud to ground lightning. Initial storms developed across the King Ranch during the mid afternoon of March 29th, and spread west into northern Hidalgo and Starr County by early evening. The storms, fed by warm, humid air near the surface, colder air aloft, and boundaries (providing lift) from earlier storms which moved across the Coastal Bend, appeared to have intensified further as they approached the highly populated Edinburg/McAllen/Mission area. One possibility why the storms intensified is the interaction with an upper level disturbance moving across northeast Mexico. This disturbance spawned dangerous storms in Nuevo Lon and Tamaulipas, and boundaries from these cells may have been the ultimate trigger to a night hundreds of thousands will not forget.

Damage totals have reached an estimated $200 million in property and crop damage. Updated tallies will be provided as information is received.

Began near Yturria (26.5939, -97.6976).

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 379842. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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